It is possible to overcome the “lusts of the flesh” as a believer. We have all struggled with lust of some kinds of the lusts listed in Galatians 5 at some point in time. Who has not had strong desire to that which we know is wrong? In fact, you might even be struggling with it right now. We all understand the struggle of Apostle Paul with “the flesh” in Romans 7 below;

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:24-25)

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned Sin In The Flesh:” (Romans 8:3 (KJV).

“they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit (do mind) the things of the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:5 (KJV)

Paul called himself a “wretched man” in his state of living by “the Law” and stat stirs the “the flesh” (1Cor. 15:56b). Because of the inner struggles and battles with a power to do evil, he finds himself helplessly controlled by it. Paul was trying to live righteously by the self-effort which is in itself of “the flesh.” For Paul had lost sight of his new identity “in Christ” wherein he is free from the dominion of Sin, because he is “not under the law but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14), free from the Law’s “condemnation.” Paul in Rom. 7:25 thanked the Lord Jesus Christ because he had found new life principal of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” a higher life, one above the power of “the lust of the flesh.” Paul says;

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (they are those) who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:1-2)

As a spiritually regenerated believer in Christ, Paul says “the Spirit of life in Christ” is the source of power for our freedom from the power of “the lust of the flesh.” The unsaved can struggle to refrain from doing the compulsions of their lustful feelings, for a time… but eradicating that lust from the heart of a man is a completely different issue altogether. Lust will stay in a man’s heart for as long as it takes to get what it wants. The Apostle here points to the life higher of “the Spirit (of Christ)” as greater than “the lust of the flesh” in his letter to the Galatians.

“… Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16)

Paul here continues, comparing walking in “the flesh” with walking in accord with “the Spirit.”

¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other (as opposites): (the flesh working) so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. ¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred (hostility), variance (quarrelsome), emulations (indignation, jealousy), wrath (fierce passion), strife (contentious), seditions (division), heresies (party, disunion), ²¹ Envyings (ill-will of jealousy), murders, drunkenness, revellings (letting loose, rioting), and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

²⁴ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. (Gal. 5:16-26)